Colorado Congressman Jason Crow, alarmed at the transfers he observed in and out of the ICE detention center in Aurora in the middle of the pandemic wrote, along with other Members of Congress, to ICE to request, among other things, that they halt transfers and that they parole and release all non- violent vulnerable detainees immediately and review all non-violent detainees for parole.

My subject is breathing. How to keep breathing, when the horror of what is happening leaves you in an exhale, and has you wondering if you can win the battle against despair that keeps you in the bottom of your breath, not knowing where the spirit will come from that will suck you back into the world, and suck the oxygen of the sad world back into your lungs.

Here, on this page, we do this: we watch what is happening at one of the margins of our world. A liminal region which, for me, etches in deep relief the worst of intentions of our social order, and its worst consequences. Looking at this is a choice I and others have made, and in our darkest moments, for me at least, it is a choice I regret, but that I cannot change.

DEATH FLIGHTS – 15 May 2020 (please share for transparency)

15 Flights today - 3 Deportations - Honduraa, El Salvador, Brazil and 6 shuffling around the US

ICE Air continued to seed and spread COVID outside and inside the US this week through

- 68 Total flights

- 11 Deportation flights

- 13 Direct deportation connections

- 10 Deportation return flights

- 34 Churn flights between detention centers in the US

Ø Today Guatemala pushed back again of a flight. Their foreign ministry said that there were 3 deportees on Wednesday’s flight that had COVID despite the US’s testing program of all deportees to Guatemala. The flight scheduled for today has been postponed and it has been reported that Guatemala is working with the CDC on what new measured need to be taken.

Ø As of today, 986 detainees have tested positive for COVID, up 21 from yesterday. 2,045 have now been tested, up from 250 yesterday. A staggering 48% of those tested have been positive.

-ICE reports that 44 of their detention center staff have tested positive, but to date they HAVE NOT reported their contractor workers. Today they told the House Oversight Committee that at least 82 CoreCivic and GEO Group staff have tested positive. 90 are in quarantine. Combined, that’s at least 124 staff with COVID. What we don’t know is how many have been tested.

DEATH FLIGHTS – 14 May 2020 (please share for transparency)

9 Flights today - No deportations today so all these were to move people around – in a pandemic.

Ø It was a relatively slow day for ICE Air, BUT NOT FOR HATE FROM ICE.

DEATH FLIGHTS – 13 May 2020

13 Flights today –3 deportation flights, 2 to Honduras and 1 to Guatemala – and 5 flights shuffling people around the country.

DEATH FLIGHTS – 12 May 2020

21 Flights today –1 deportation flight

TODAY WAS A DEADLY SHELL GAME DAY – 18 SHUFFLE FLIGHTS IN THE US

- Along with the 1 deportation there was 1 leg in the US that connected to the last deportation leg. And still, 18 flights in shuffling people around the US as the COVID shell game continues.

Ø This post is about the deportation flights but let us not forget about the 20,000 people that have been expelled since March 22 at the border with no chance to exert their legal right to seek asylum or protection as a result of the CDC Order. Expelled to Mexico and that includes unaccompanied minors. Inhumane. Children sent to a country that may not be theirs, alone.

I wish, sometimes, now especially, that I could offer some comfort. But since I have somehow gotten a job as a witness to the treatment of people who come to the borders of the country I live in, I cannot comfort anyone. Not myself or anyone else. Not today.

DEATH FLIGHTS – 11 May 2020

20 Flights today – 4 deportation flights – Honduras (2), Guatemala, Haiti.

- Along with the 4 deportations there were 6 legs in the US that connected to the last deportation leg. And still, 6 flights in shuffling people around the US as the COVID shell game continues.

Ø Today The flight to Guatemala that was expected based on Friday that was cancelled was completed. We still do not know why it was cancelled Friday but perhaps they did not have enough people tested for COVID that were negative prepared. Guatemala is the only country that will not accept deportees without medical papers indicating they were just tested and did not have COVID. Somehow, they are apparently withstanding the administrations pressure. Today Michelle Hackman of the WSJ reported on White House threats to withhold visas to countries not accepting deportees in the midst of the pandemic. https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-threatens-to-deny-visas-to-countries-refusing-deported-citizens-11586577586?reflink=share_mobilewebshare

Ø Today there was also deportation flight to Haiti, the poorest country in our hemisphere and one that has scant medical resources to treat COVID patients. 11 million people, densely populated, dependent on an estimated 20 working (80 total) ventilators and 125 ICU beds. Advocates have pleaded to stop these flights. Ignored.

DEATH FLIGHTS – 8 May 2020

Ø 11 Flights with 2 deportations – Honduras and El Salvador. And 9 shuffling.

Ø 72 Flights for the week:

- 13 Deportations – Honduras (5), Guatemala (2), El Salvador (2,) Dominican, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru

- 10 that connected to deportation flights

- 13 Return from deportations

- 36 Shuffle in the US flights

DEATH FLIGHTS – 7 May 2020 (please share for transparency)

10 FLIGHTS - 1 deportation. Honduras and maybe Peru?

Photo: courtesy of the El Paso Anti-Deportation Squad

Ø Today was a slower day; 1 deportation flight and more shuffling.

Ø We fear that detainees in El Paso (where there is a recent outbreak of COVID-19) and a successful lawsuit; were boarded onto a plane today and flown to Alexandria, Louisiana. Shuffling instead of releasing.

Ø 753 detainees have been positive for COVID, up 48 today. Those tested increased by 68 to 1,528. Of those tested almost half have been positive.

DEATH FLIGHTS – 6 May 2020

11 FLIGHTS - 2 deportations. Honduras and Guatemala

Ø Today was a slower day yet 2 deportation flights and more shuffling.

Ø Today our friends in El Paso, Debbie Nathan and the El Paso Anti-Deportation Squad witnessed a flight from El Paso to Honduras. They saw about 23 deportees, men and women. We thank them for their witness and continuing to show ICE people are watching. It is their photo in today’s post. A woman.

Ø Today, Carlos Ernesto Escobar, a 57-year old man from El Salvador, who was being held at OTAY detention center died from COVID. He tested positive on April 24.

ICE Air Exporting Covid: Analysis of the 300 ICE Air 2020 Deportation Flights and Activity Pre/Early COVID (Jan/Feb) Compared to In-COVID (March/April).

DEATH FLIGHTS – 4 May 2020

22 FLIGHTS - 5 DEPORTATION FLIGHTS

Ø Today was a breathtakingly busy day. We can only imagine how much COVID was seeded and spread by ICE Air today given the number of flights and geographies covered. To put today into perspective, today there were 5 deportation flights and all of last week there were 6. Today there were 22 flights, last week there were 59 for the full week. The next few days will be interesting.

Ø 7 ICE Air planes were in the air today and there were 5 deportation flights, the most in one day in about month. Deportations to Honduras (2), Ecuador, and Columbia, and Guatemala.

As we expected, ICE is moving prisoners this morning from Krome and Broward, in Florida, ruled life-threatening by a court, to another prison in Georgia, where the courts may not be watching. ICE Air, also known as Swift Air. They fly sports teams around, and carry the super-rich to ski resorts when not committing crimes against humanity.

To say that these are strange times is too weak a description, but there is little point in struggling for stronger terms; we are all living in it. I think we all owe ourselves some sympathy for our personal struggles. Some of us have had the virus brush closer to us than others, and some very close indeed. We are fragile creatures, and these tribulations remind us, or teach us, that.

DEATH FLIGHTS – 1 May 2020

6 FLIGHTS

Ø These are not just airplanes and statistics. They are people. They are families of loving men, women and children. It is easy, even for those of us that have witnessed the boarding of these flying boxcars of our generation and who have literally mourned their passing into the clouds to lose sight of that. To count the planes, the routes, to record the departure and destination locations.

- One of my most vivid memories of witnessing the boarding of a deportation flight in Brownsville was of my good friend and 82 year-old warrior Fran Schindler who was witnessing with me. As each person struggled up the steps in their shackles and with their heads bowed low she counted each one. And the longer she counted the more the tears flowed and soon she was trembling pressed against the chain fence. I told her she could take a break – that is was ok. She would not. You see, she was not counting for a tally. She told me she was counting so that she could remember each individual and so that they were accounted for in her mind as a person who was loved. She counted every one of the 92 that were sent away to danger that day. Some of Fran went with every one of them. That is why we witness.

Ø Today was a slow day for ICE Air. A deportation flight to El Salvador and more shuffling around the US. Since ICE discloses nothing we can only question why. Are they trying to organize their new testing protocol which is to test 2,000 per month; still only 7% of the detainee population? Positioning for a big day Monday? Are more countries beyond Guatemala pushing back to require testing of all those of flights? We don’t know, but that’s why we witness.

Ø COVID continues to spread in detention centers, and therefore to deportation countries. As of today, 522 have tested positive, up 32 from yesterday. The number tested increased to by 43 to 1,073. So, of those tested, 49% have been positive. It does appear that only symptomatic people are being tested, with the exception perhaps of those deported yesterday to Guatemala since they would only accept those tested and negative.

Ø Difficulties, danger and challenges do not stop when they land. Many will face even more difficult times. The Kino Border Initiatives prepares some simple and brief material that they try to get to detainees to let them know what they might experience if deported based on the deportation country. Note El Salvador has 45 days of confinement upon return. We share it now with you for a more complete picture.

HONDURAS
1) If people arrive in San Pedro Sula:
- Adults arrive at the Returned Migrants Service Center. There they do a medical check-up to see if they have symptoms, and if they do not have symptoms, they issue them a permit to travel for a day, to get home, and they have 3 options: a) Take them to the SPS-enabled shelter (a former warehouse ), there they can be quarantined; b) they can get a taxi at the airport (they say some taxis are coming); c) A bus will drop you off at the center of San Pedro. But they no longer offer the three bus routes that were a few days ago. Some organizations are organizing to get help.

- Families and unaccompanied minors arrive at the Centro Belén - it has always been like this. There the procedure is similar, they do a medical checkup to see if they have symptoms, from what they have said, so far no one has come with symptoms. The Center has a shelter, and when they cannot leave immediately or if they are unaccompanied minors, while they wait for them to go look for them, they stay there.

- It seems that there are already UNHCR officers at CARM and in Bethlehem, to deal with cases officials identify with protection needs.

DEATH FLIGHTS – 30 APRIL 2020 (please share for transparency)

11 FLIGHTS

Ø Today there was one deportation flight to Guatemala with 2 cities involved (described below), and 2 planes each seeding and spreading COVID across the detention centers with 4 flight legs each. The churn between detention centers continues to shock us. No passenger numbers (or flights for that matter) are disclosed by ICE but there is no reason to flit around the country like this unless they are transporting people.

Ø Today there was a flight to Guatemala, although their government has said it did not mean the suspension has been lifted. Guatemala suspended deportation flights for the 3rd time during the pandemic a little over a week ago after 103 detainees returned had COVID.

- This flight was classified as a “humanitarian” flight and included 92 people; 3 unaccompanied minors, 20 in family units and 69 men.

- Each passenger was tested for COVID and tested negative and they carried their medical papers with them. So, 92 tests, which might help explain the large jump in disclosed tests last night.

We are witnesses to something that is too large for us to wrap our minds around. We are watching something sweep away the world we once knew. And what follows is not coming into focus. But more and more, it seems that the changes will be profound.

Still, there are many of us who are reluctant to acknowledge the sea change taking place. We pretend that the world we will live out the rest of our days in is still the one we lived in up until a couple of months ago. This is a human thing to do; the changes are dizzying, and we have not found our feet.

ICE will try to hide, but good people will find a way to witness. Many thanks to Debbie Nathan and the El Paso Anti-Deportation squad for rushing to the El Paso airport this morning to witness and report on a death flight to Honduras. Solidarity in witness.

DEATH FLIGHTS – 28 APRIL 2020 (please share for transparency)

20 FLIGHTS

Ø Today we saw an amazing amount of churning of flights within the US and presumably detainees. Since ICE does not disclose the number of prisoners on their flights we are left to our educated guesses. When we see 3 and 4 legs of flights by the same plane there really is no explanation other than they are moving people around.

- Today we saw 1 plane fly 5 legs, and 3 planes fly 4 legs all within the US.

- Even the deportation flight to El Salvador made 2 legs in the US.